A Hero In Time
by Mage-Alia
Summary: An earthquake shortly before the Chunin exam unearths a set of ruins from an ancient civilization and team 7 are sent to escort the investigators, but a simple scouting mission could turn in to something much more as the door is opened on a different destiny. Something much bigger than the world they know. No Pairs.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto/Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time crossover

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own Naruto, that's an honor left for Masashi Kishimoto. I don't have anything to do with Zelda either. Nintendo are vicious.

* * *

A Hero In Time

By: Mage-Alia

Chapter 1

* * *

Summary: An earthquake shortly before the Chunin exam unearths a set of ruins from an ancient civilization and team 7 are sent to escort the investigators, but a simple scouting mission could turn in to something much more as the door is opened on a different destiny.

Something much bigger than the world they know.

No pairings

A/N: Plotbunny

* * *

The air was quiet as the four man squad and their employers entered the ruins.

Two days ago, on the borders between Earth Country and Fire Country an earthquake had unearthed a set of ruins that had excited archeologists all over the Elemental countries the moment they'd gotten word. With their proximity to Konoha the Hokage had decided that is was for the best when he postponed the upcoming Chunnin exams by four weeks to allow the excitement of this new phenomena to blow over, thus, Team 7, having just recovered from their mission to Wave, where walking along side the cart that held a bundle of tools all meant for the task of pulling apart the ruins and discovering their purpose.

The excited chatter of the civilians was only background noise and the Shinobi scanned their surroundings, but none of the Gennin where paying attention as the looked over the ruins in awe.

"Woaaahhh….." Naruto whispered, more to himself as he looked through the stone tombs of memory and saw a fountain in what looked to be a market square among the buildings. Time and the forest had long since overtaken the ruins. Casting them in shades of green as the civilians saw the ruins of a large palace rising into the distance as they jumped out of the cart and instantly set about taking photographs and wondering between the stones.

Sakura was looking around, equally as awed, but every now and then her eyes flickered to the Uchiha standing stoically to the side, betraying her thoughts. Kakashi had decided the area was mostly clear and had waved them off to explore as he sat down by the fountain and pulled out Icha Icha Paradise, his single visible eye trained on the pages like they held the answer to all existence.

Naruto took off the moment Kakashi had given the word and he roamed the area, passing further and further away from the fountain courtyard until just one ruined building stood before him. It was separated from the rest of the village by dense jungle that hid it in a curtain of green but it's strangest feature was the fact that it had very little wear. In fact, the building itself seemed to stand alone, outside of all space and time.

He didn't take his eyes off the vine covered stone once as he approached the entry, unable to do so even if he had wanted too. The blonde felt drawn, like an invisible hand guiding his steps as he moved into the shade of the building. An ancient weight seemed to fall upon his shoulders as he passed the threshold and into the eerily quiet hall.

The air hummed with music he couldn't hear, thrumming beneath his skin like a heartbeat as the sunlight faded behind him as he moved further and further away from the door. The building had only one room. Oddly disproportionate from the outside the white stones beneath his feet seemed to go on forever as the tug in his chest continued to pull him to the other end… across a large stone pad set into the floor and toward a black marble topped altar.

His feet finally stopped moving, leaving him standing squarely before an inscription carved along the stone and without thinking, he began to read.

"When the skies turn that of the darkest night, and future becomes bleak,

Look to the coming of Courage's light and follow him back to the Day.

Ancient enemies reborn beware, the rebirth of the greatest power.

Hero heed these words.

To open the way to the sacred realm where the power of the goddesses lie,

Bring forth the Heart of Water, the Soul of the Forest and the Spirit of Fire,

Present them before us, and open the way home."

Naruto finished reading the text on the Altar and reached out to trace one of the indents to one side.

"The door to take the Hero home?" He wondered, and his mind was cast back to shortly after their fight in Wave. They'd spent another week with Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari before they'd headed back to Konoha, and in that time Tsunami had pulled him aside to talk.

* * *

 _Wave – 3 Weeks ago_

" _Naruto, would you mind if I joined you?" Tsunami stood on the edge of the dock, watching him from a little ways off as he went about cleaning his Kunai and Shuriken. Naruto shrugged._

" _Sure." He said non-chalantly, shifting everything into a tighter pile beside him and Tsunami sat down, her legs dangling over the water as she placed a small carved wooden box down between them._

" _My husband, when we were married, he gave me an heirloom of his. He said that he descended from a tribe of people known as the Zora and it was a tradition of theirs, to only give away their hearts to the one they loved the most. The one they'd spend their entire lives with. Instead of rings, like a normal wedding, they had gems, Sapphires they received at birth." She opened the box between them and revealed a cluster of Sapphires, inlaid into a delicate gold frame that glinted up at them from amid the dark blue silk of the boxes lining._

" _He also said that this particular Sapphire was special. Kaiza told me of its legend, that it has been passed down from generation to generation, from one of the ancient princesses of his people, meant for a Hero. A long time ago there was a land that lived in perfect harmony, but a great evil besieged it and very nearly destroyed everything until a hero emerged on the battlefield. He changed the tide of the war and in the end, good and order prevailed and peace reigned once again. But the Hero vanished after the final battle and never returned." Naruto listened to every word with every part of his being and he didn't even notice as his hands stopped rubbing the whetstone along his kunai's blade, falling limp._

" _So this Gem, he said it was a key. A way for the Hero to find his way back home." She lifted it out of its box by a sparkling golden chain and held it up to the light._

" _Kaiza also told me, when he died, that I should choose another to carry it on. He was the last surviving member of his clan and after him there was no one of the same blood to pass it to." Naruto couldn't even move as she reached over and draped the sapphire around his neck, unconsciously smoothing his spiky hair a little before her hands drew away, like she would have done with Inari._

" _I believe you should be the one to bear it from now on." She sighed and closed the box. "It was a gift, meant for a Hero, and you Naruto, you saved the village and the bridge. If it wasn't for you, Inari would probably have never found the strength to stand up and rally the villagers like he did and for that we would forever be in your debt…"_

* * *

Present

"Is it really so close to that time already? But where is the Hero?" Naruto breathed out and subconsciously reached for the necklace as he leaned against the altar.

"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!?" The serene atmosphere of the Temple was broken as Sakura barged in and began to yell. Reacting on instinct Naruto turned around and started a roaring argument that soon carried on outside. Out of the shadows after them, stepped Sasuke who crossed to the altar and studied it, a fanatic light in his eyes before he too left the Temple.

Kakashi, who had followed Naruto in before either Sasuke or Sakura had turned up just looked at the altar where the glyphs on the stone where completely unreadable, resembling no human language currently in existence. Naruto had not only read the glyphs, he'd translated them and understood the content. The answer to that was simple, the ruins where old enough that Kyuubi might be old enough to remember their origins… but that lead to the question of how much influence the Kyuubi had over Naruto. Could the seal have weakened?

His single visible eye drooped and the Jounin heaved a sigh.

Why did he have to have such troublesome students?

* * *

They spent another two weeks in the ruins.

Naruto was oddly distant when he wasn't playing translator for the Archeologists. They'd discovered him reading off a stone that had been standing apart from the bulk of the ruins and ever since they'd been running him ragged with questions until they'd figured out enough that they could decipher the language on their own. They were fascinated by the temple and the writings on the altar. Kakashi kept a close eye on the Blonde, occasionally asking subtle questions about the Prophecy on the stone but the blonde either noticed the questions for what they were and avoided them, or was simply to oblivious to understand that he was being interrogated. Either way, his silence on the issue was frustrating.

Eventually they left the ruins as their relief team arrived and Team Seven returned to Konoha. The village was a welcome change of pace to the dead air of the ruins. Shouting stall vendors, laughing children… all the noises they took for granted took on a new significance.

Naruto sighed as he dragged himself back to his apartment and threw down his bags in the corner, wanting nothing more than a shower and then to go to sleep for the rest of the day. Kakashi had pushed them coming back from the border, he'd been in a hurry to reach Konoha before the end of the day. Shedding his clothing Naruto made his way to the bathroom, stopping only to set down the Zora's Saphire and the small blue instrument he'd found in the ruins on a shelf.

The instrument had caught his eye, one day after making his way back from reading the inscriptions in the Temple. It had been lying in a dusty corner, unnoticed by the usually hawk eyed excavators. He'd picked it up on a whim and it had nearly shocked him with its latent power. Like the Sapphire, it had a strange energy flowing through it, and later once it had been cleaned up, Naruto had tried his hand at playing it.

The music had been unnaturally clear.

In spite of the fact he'd never so much as touched an instrument in his life he found his fingers going through the motions like he'd played his entire life. Of course, whatever lingering power the instrument held was used up in that moment and he'd gone back to blowing awkwardly through the mouth piece, but the memory of the song stayed with him and after some practice, he could perform the song by heart. It was strangely comforting to hear.

He was up on the rooftops playing it late one evening when he started thinking of the prophecy once more. His one burning question being the most obvious.

Where was the Hero?

* * *

When Kakashi told them a week before the beginning of the Chunnin exams that they'd be competing Naruto had been thrilled. With grand plans for training with his Bunshins he'd gone looking for a training ground. His first stop had been training ground seven, but he'd been rebuffed by Sakura who'd kicked him out lest he get in the way of her Sasuke time. The next ten fields had been occupied and the eleventh was marked off as dangerous... but eventually he came to the edge of the woods that bordered the Forest of Death, and stopped, peering into the white mist that seeped between widely spaced trees.

He wouldn't have known it at that point... but Naruto had just stumbled across what was possibly one of the most dangerous forests in Fire Country. There had been a forest that stood, long before the first Hokage had raised the army of sentinel pines that guarded their borders and filled the spaces between with growth. The Lost Woods were a legend, existing like a genjutsu, invisible to some, and blatantly obvious to others, the only reason there weren't any signs marking it as dangerous was because anyone who found it were rarely seen again...

But he didn't know that.

Instead, when Naruto looked through the mist, he saw a pathway. Flashes of life came and went as the mist parted and closed, showing sun dappled clearings, wide open meadows, lakes that sparkled in a morning light and there somewhere beyond them all was a song...

The dancing darting melody sounded like it was played on an instrument like the one in his kunai pouch.

And without thinking twice about the ominous mist and strangely still trees Naruto plunged forward down the pathway. Something in the mist shuddered at his passing, writhing around in the leaves and undergrowth as it followed the brightly dressed boy into the forest and behind them both, the mist of the Lost Woods surged back into its place, hiding the path, and the woods themselves from the world.

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure how long he'd been following the music.

It fluttered in his ears and sounded like lost memories as it tugged him onwards, growing stronger when he was on the right path and growing softer when he tried to stray. Great hollow logs acted like pathways, that while looking perfectly normal on one side, would look completely different the next and more than once he found himself turning around only to find that the passage he'd taken moments before had disappeared. But he stayed on the path set by the music, not allowing the faint fear he felt to seep through as he finally came out into a dim clearing.

If there was a sky, it wasn't visible above the mist, even though there were no trees to obscure the view. At ground level the fog lifted and Naruto could finally see where he'd ended up.

It was a village.

Hollowed out trees had windows and doors, evidence of rotted curtains visible in some of them as the forest appeared to have begun to reclaim the little abandoned homes. Naruto found himself wondering from house to house, finding oddly preserved objects amid the desiccated contents. Children's drawings littered the walls, scratched into wood or marked out in faded stains. Patterns that had once been bright had turned grey and Naruto felt out of place in the bleached out world.

In one tall tree house he'd had to use a length of wire to climb, he found a ceramic pot full of gems that he'd had to break to free them. Other things there seemed to be the most well preserved items in the village. Charcoal drawings on a board to one side of the room, a little wooden bed that had lost most of its padding a, a chest of draws filled with green tunics, a green hat and white under clothes (Even if only one set was wearable), a pair of boots and a blackened shield in a trunk by the door and sitting on the table, with a whetstone nearby like the last owner had intended to come back and sharpen it, sat a sheathed short sword.

Naruto found himself dropping the gems back on the table beside it, when it finally sunk in that someone had actually lived here... in the bleak forest with the child sized houses in which no adult could comfortably stay. Someone had called this place home.

But now they were gone.

His training, however neglected, finally kicked in and he looked around, trying to fill the blanks as he jumped back down to the ground and set off toward the other end of the village where another opening was visible in the almost solid wall of trees that encircled the clearing. The blonde marched down the passage, ducking his head a little as the canopy above him turned to stone and twisted around a few bends before finally opening out into a grand clearing, and revealing what was easily the most massive tree Naruto had ever seen. It's bark was folded and scared with age, and the giant knots in the grain of its wood made a face that stared down at him like a great intimidating sentinel...

It kind of felt like staring down one of the faces of the Hokage Mountain... only bigger.

Intimidated by the sight, Naruto was torn between staying in the clearing and leaving as fast as he could before something in the tree _Shifted_ and the nin was frozen in his tracks as _something spoke._

 _'Greetings, Young Hero.'_

Naruto almost decided just to cut it and run, before he realized what the voice had called him.

"Hero?" He asked, his voice coming out sounding strangled. "I'm no Hero." The wind whistled through the trees once more and he found his neck itching like someone was watching him as he finally turned his eyes from the forest to look at the Great Tree.

And the tree looked back.

Black, tired eyes looked down from a weary face and the tree gave off the same air of Old that Hokage-jiji sometimes did when he felt like the world was too heavy on his shoulders and he Looked. Really Looked.

 _'Hmmmmm... maybe... maybe not yet...'_ The Tree said in response, the limbs and boughs creaking with age as they settled above. _'But you are here for a reason... I guided you as best I could with the last of my power, and there is so little time left...'_

 _'Once, there was a shinning kingdom... a place of peace and balance, of light and hope, made by three goddesses that descended from the chaotic heavens and molded the lands and it's people from nothing...'_

 _'This kingdom was called Hyrule.'_

* * *

Once again, Naruto stood in the tree house, this time looking down on the village in wary caution as he kept a close watch out for things creeping in the night.

Hours earlier, the Great Deku Tree, as it had been identified, had told him about the kingdom called Hyrule. It had been a utopia, where the races had lived in harmony under the rule of a king. Under his dominion had been the Hyilians, a long eared and long lived race that reminded him of elves, an aquatic race known as the Zora whom Naruto had heard of before, a people made of stone who lived in a volcano, the dark dwellers who played guardian to the royal line, the desert tribes that consisted mostly of women and the children of the lost woods, fairies given human form to interact with the rest of the world.

They'd lived with thousands of years of peace until threats from both inside the kingdom and beyond it had finally made their mark. The shadow people, the Sheikah, had started their own civil war. Caught between duty to the kings and queens and their own dark past they tore themselves in two, fighting a bloody and ruthless war in secret, but no matter how hard the few still loyal to the royal family tried, their fight leaked over into the other races. Their rites of shadow and death tainted whatever they touched and soon, the king had had to take action, calling on the powers left by the goddesses he'd stopped the war, but he'd intervened too late. The Shiekah had paid the price of their war in blood, and their people - once numerous, became only a few hundred who retreated further into shadow out of shame.

But no one anticipated the reactions of those from outside their borders.

The neighboring lands had all kept careful eyes on the prosperous realm of Hyrule, and with their primary defenders all but eradicated they had fallen on the kingdom like starving wolves. Naturally, the people of Hyrule rose up. They fought back, turning the tide of the war and pushing the invaders back until they slinked away defeated and an uneasy peace fell upon them, lasting for another two hundred years until finally someone dared try take the kingdom again. A Dark Sorcerer who wielded magical powers unlike anything seen before, raised an army and attacked, sweeping across the world like a plague, marching right to the doors of the palace, only to be stopped in his tracks by a man in green, who fought back with an odd magic of his own, blessed by the goddesses he'd fought alongside the defenders and opened the way for the people of the castle and it's surrounding town to escape.

Throughout the short war his mere presence gave the people hope as he finally confronted the Sorcerer, but the Sorcerer escaped, using his strange magic to leap through a portal the Hero refused to let him go and followed as the portal closed behind him... but even as he disappeared, the armies of the sorcerer had broken ranks, scattering as the Hyilians and their king retaliated, snatching their victory from the near defeat and liberating their kingdom once and for all...

But the people mourned the loss of their Hero.

Lost to the flow of time they decided to leave him a message. A message that only he would read, and only he could understand. A way home...

The Deku Tree had stopped speaking then, his story apparently over as he lapsed into silence and Naruto had blinked furiously realizing that during the story he'd sat down and listened in a trance as the images conjured by the Tree's words danced behind his eyes. The tree had given a heaving sigh that made the air feel even more heavy than before as the wind had ruffled the bare branches above and the blonde had caught sight of something glittering in the faint misty light before it fell, landing with a ringing chime against the hard packed dirt at the base of the Tree.

 _'This is all that remains of that age... a key for the hero and a match for the one you already wear.'_

Naruto looked ever at the table where the hero's sapphire lay and beside it on its chain now hung a large bright emerald, set into a delicate scroll of gold wire shaped like a leaf.

 _'My time is short... but I am glad.. to have lived long enough to welcome you home...'_

And like that, the tree groaned and settled for the last time as the color leached out of its bark, turning the Great Tree a petrified white as it spoke its last.

But as the Deku Tree found its peaceful end, Naruto's nightmare had only just begun. When the Tree died, the power that had been holding back the denizens of the forest suddenly faded and the white mist that had been so empty before was now dark and foreboding with an ancient power as everything living in those woods had tried it's best to kill him. His clothing had made him stick out like a beacon in the night as he ran for his life, he tried fighting the monsters with Kunai and Shuriken but they made no impact as the larger creatures just shrugged off the blows, tearing his clothes as they attacked and at one point something had grabbed his jacket, forcing him to shed it as he ran for his life and backtracked to the only place high enough to be defensible against the monsters of the forest.

But this time he didn't have the luxury of respecting the dead as he changed into the Green Tunic and white underclothes that would blend far better into the green of the forest, donned the boots and picked up the shield before finally taking the sword and securing the sheathe to his back. On his way back out into the night he grabbed the gems again, and stopped by a dirty broken shard of mirror that had fallen near the door. His own refection was almost alien, the green was a vast change from the usual Orange and he barely recognized himself as he studied his own face and decided something was missing from the outfit as he absentmindedly tightened the brown leather belt and looked around before spying the Green hat draped over the edge of a chest of drawers.

Jogging over he picked it up and with a shrug pulled his forehead protector down to his neck and pulled the hat on over his hair before he made his way to the door and out into the village where the horrors of forest waited, much better prepared than before.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so maybe there was a story or two left in my head after all.

Don't forget to Review.

Cya


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto/Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time crossover

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own Naruto, that's an honor left for Masashi Kishimoto. I don't have anything to do with Zelda either. Nintendo are vicious.

* * *

A Hero In Time

By: Mage-Alia

Chapter 2

* * *

Summary: An earthquake shortly before the Chunin exam unearths a set of ruins from an ancient civilization and team 7 are sent to escort the investigators, but a simple scouting mission could turn in to something much more as the door is opened on a different destiny.

Something much bigger than the world they know.

No pairings

* * *

A/N: *snorts* Have a little more faith, yeah?

Don't worry.

This will not go the way you think.

* * *

No one had seen Naruto for a week and people were actually starting to become concerned by his absence as the Chunnin exams loomed closer. Iruka, who had been fretting since finding out team seven had been entered, was at his wits end trying to find him and was still doing so as the Genin finally came together from all over the elemental nations to participate and it was on the unusually misty morning of the first stage of the exam that found him standing outside the academy waiting for team seven to show up.

Naruto, while generally lazy and not very disciplined in a classroom had never failed a test by being absent.

Eventually, as the sun climbed higher, the first participants arrived, filtering into the building in threes until finally, Sasuke, and then Sakura appeared to wait beside him and just as he was about to panic and find an Anbu to help him hunt Naruto down, a green clad form came barreling around the corner and for a moment Iruka formed the horrified thought that Maito Gai was thundering down on them until the figure skidded to a stop in front of them. The Teacher and the two other squad members of team seven were treated to the sight of Naruto for the first time in a week.

"Hey! Hey! I didn't miss the exam did I? I came as soon as I knew what day it was!" Oddly enough, Sakura was the first to recover from the shock of his entry and let fly.

"What day it was?! BAKA! WHAT WERE YOU DOING THAT YOU FORGOT THE DAY AND WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?!" Naruto just took the shouting with a grin and scratched the back of his head as she vented.

"Sorry Sakura-Chan, I was training and I lost track of time, I didn't even have time to get changed!" A grunt from Sasuke reminded Sakura she had an audience and she reigned in her temper as the dark haired boy gestured to the doors.

"Come on, dobe." He grumbled and they all expected Naruto to yell at him but the boy just rolled his eyes and made to follow before Iruka stopped him.

"Just a moment, can I have a word with you Naruto?" The boy had shrugged.

"Sure thing Iruka-sensei! You guys go ahead, I'll catch up!" He waved his teammates on and turned to his teacher who gripped his shoulder and was surprised to find the blonde's muscles tightly wound beneath the material of the tunic.

"You've really been working hard haven't you." he said, somewhat surprised. Naruto gave a little laugh.

"Yep, I've been learning new things to help with the exam." He said gesturing to the sword and shield on his back. They weren't ninja weapons and they couldn't have belonged to a samurai, so where had he found them?

"Well I'm glad you're finally taking your training seriously, but next time, please let me know you're alright when you go training for a week. I was worried about you." Naruto had the grace to look at least a little sheepish.

"Sorry Iruka-sensei. I'll let you know next time, but I gotta go now. I'm going to totally kick ass and become a Chunnin!" Iruka let out a burst of laughter at that and ruffled the boy's hair, or tried to, only partially succeeding as the hat got in the way.

"Good luck!" He called after his former student as he ran into the building. He wasn't entirely happy with the brief conversation, but he was reassured that Naruto was safe and healthy, and that was the most important thing, even if he was confused over the boy's change in wardrobe and sudden growth spurt... He could only pray that Gai had nothing to do with it.

* * *

When Naruto finally caught up with his teammates, he found them getting into a fight.

Well, Sasuke was in a fight, Sakura was hovering in the background with a number of other Chunnin hopefuls while the Rookie of the Year showed off against two older genin. For the most part it was just clear posturing, but when he noticed it coming to blows he reacted on instinct born from the week he'd spent in the Lost Woods fighting for his life. Leaping forward he rolled to the group staying low, one arm going for his shield he came up, straightening abruptly and setting his feet to absorb the blow as a metallic clang echoed throughout the room.

And then came the howl of pain as the genin that had been about to punch Sasuke's lights out realized he'd gone and punched an inch think shield made of Deku Wood and Steel instead. It took a few moments more for it to sink in that the rush of air at his back hadn't been Sasuke pulling his kick to stop from hitting him, but another green wearing genin rushing to catch his teammate's leg.

"So much for being discrete." A boy with long hair and blank white eyes to one side muttered lowly under the howling of the bully that got the wrong side of Naruto's shield. The blonde ignored the chaos as he nodded to the other green clad figure and with a short glaring look at his teammate he made his way swiftly down the hall.

The boy from before had shouted after him, asking his name, but Naruto was tired and hungry, having been on his way to see Ayame and her old man, before realizing the day and rushing to the academy. Sasuke however didn't seem to have any qualms about stopping and the blonde was forced to wait with an obviously curious Kakashi near the doors for Sasuke and Sakura to catch up.

Eventually he made it into the exam room and was all but ready to fall into a seat when the rest of the rookies walked over and started to talk loudly, getting glares from most of the room and even inducing a fight with the Sound genin before the proctor's came in and settled them down, separating the teams and sitting them at desks before revealing the paper test. Naruto almost despaired at the announcement until he heard a voice in the shuffling silence of the room.

 _"Hey, you'd almost think they're being meanie heads."_

The little voice came right out of the blue and his head shot up to look around for the owner.

 _"One plus one is two, things should be easy. Why would you need to know the velocity of a knife at that angle? Wouldn't a dart be quicker?"_

Looking down at his sheet he realized the voice, whoever it was, was reading the exam questions before he noticed the glint of light from the corner of his eye and found what looked like a little glowing person with bright dragonfly wings on its back.

A fairy. It was a fairy. A Real Live Fairy.

He stared in disbelief, unable to comprehend where the thing had come from as it sat on his shoulder, reading the questions and complaining loudly at how hard they were.

 _"It's almost like they expect them to fail! That's it! No hero under my watch is gonna fail such a stupid test! I'm going to get the answers! Just you watch me! When I call them out you write them down okay? Big old meanies aren't gonna fail us on some test!"_

The blonde could only look on stupefied as the glittering little creature pumped it's wings and took off from his shoulder, wobbling with an inexperienced air before it ventured off between the rows of the genin, keeping a running commentary as it did.

 _"Hey, look! They're cheating! They're all cheating! Nihihihihihi, I can hear the dog over there giving answers! And there are mirrors on the ceiling! And- hey?! Is that guy over there finished already? He didn't turn the page over! Does he think no one's gonna look at his answers or something? Hey! Write this down, Okay!"_

The tinny shouting finally launched into an explanation of the first question and before Naruto could worry if it was audible to the rest of the room he hurried to write down the answers. Eventually though, as he finished all but the last question it- no She, came back and sat on his shoulder once more, looking smug as she read the answers he'd written and preened at how much of an awesome team they made.

It wasn't until after the tenth question had been asked that anyone made note of the little creature's presence.

A group of Iwa genin shuffled over to him as the exited the building and Naruto hadn't exactly noticed until he was surrounded by a wall of bulky humans.

"You've got a looooooooud little friend there kid." The green clad genin looked up and immediately went defensive as he hopped away from the taller male and straight into another. The one behind him laughed.

"Hey, don't worry kid, we just wanted to say thaaaaaanks. Your little friend really saved our asses yelling out all the answers for us... so just for that we're not gonna hunt you down in the exam. The rest of your team though? Geeze, how do you live with the pink one? She's reeeeaaaaaaally grating on the ears! Kinda sounds like my cousin in the middle of a tantrum. I remember this one winter where someone put out the fire near his room and he got so cold that he wouldn't sleep for _Days_."

Naruto blinked numbly as he was manhandled along behind the others stuck listening to the trio babbling along like he was an old friend.

Had the world gone mad in the time since he'd entered those woods?

It wasn't until they reached the edge of a familiar training ground that he noticed where they'd ended up and the glares that the other Konoha nin were giving the Iwa Genin surrounding him. One particular woman with purple hair and a fishnet body suit was doing the worst of the glaring before she threw a Kunai at the third genin with the intent of splitting them up however once again Naruto's instincts screamed and he brought out his shield, shrugging off an arm that weighed like a ton of stone, just in time to deflect it right at the face of a Kusa-nin who took the blow and promptly melted into a puddle of mud. They pulled themselves back out of the softened earth a moment later and retrieved the fallen kunai with a creepily long tongue, returning it to the purple haired proctor named Anko. She seemingly told her off before all but slithering back to her group and allowing the announcements to continue.

That's when he felt it.

In the last week he'd been exposed to all the horrors the Lost Woods had to offer, and after a time he'd learned their names, learned their weaknesses and most importantly, he'd learned how to _feel_ them coming.

And right now he could feel a whole damned lot of bad something's coming his way.

As well as the fairy now shivering under his hat.

 _"We're going in there?"_

He found himself looking at the Genin and then at the forest and knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were not prepared. When the magic of the Deku Tree had failed it had let everything out of the woods and into the places where they hadn't been allowed before. A little voice, not belonging to the fairy, told him that he'd have to do something. He'd have to find whatever had escaped the woods and put it back...

The Proctors however didn't give them a lot of time to dwell on it as they hurried them through signing the waivers and giving their teams the scrolls. When Naruto picked up the scroll for team seven he refused to hand it over to Sasuke and tucked it away into the back of his tunic where it was covered by his shield. Teams then proceeded to scatter around the perimeter of the forest, spreading out to the different gates that were cut into the chain link fence that restrained its inhabitance. A buzzer went off from sirens placed around the grounds and teams lurched foward, speeding for the safety of the treeline as they raced to get ahead of the others but Naruto grabbed Sakura and Sasuke by the backs of their shirts to keep them from following after and they fell still in his grasp a moment later when the first of the terrified screams echoed from the woods...

A few minutes later Naruto let them go and started to walk forward, the way now mostly clear.

* * *

It soon became obvious, even to the teammates who usually disregarded him, that he knew what he was doing when the first of the snapping Deku Baba vines leapt out from the underbrush to bite them. He bashed forward with his shield and stunned the head before pulling his sword and lopping the stem off close to the root, effectively ending the threat if not outright killing it. Deku Baba grew back if they weren't pulled out by the roots, but with the purple bulbous man-eaters being the least of the forest's inhabitants. Naruto let it be as he quickly directed everyone to a clearing where he heard the faint strains of the forest melody bouncing through the leaves. The sound was a good one, it meant that while it played, they were safe.

Sasuke and Sakura couldn't hear it though, they didn't even seem to care as they argued for a way to tell each other apart in the case of an emergency. Naruto tuned out the over complicated arguing and focused on the fairy shivering in his hair.

"Hey..." He started, reaching up to cup it loosely in his hands. She peeked up over his fingers and stared first at him and then out into the forest beyond the clearing.

 _"This isn't right."_ The fairy wailed softly. _"Where's the Deku Tree? He was here not long ago. What happened to him? Why are the monsters out of the woods?"_ Naruto gave into the urge to stroke her head, his hands comically big against her tiny form.

"I'm sorry." He murmured to her. She broke into noisy tears for a moment before actively stomping down on her grief and then stomping on his hand as she got to her feet. Although the fairy's glow had dimmed while she cried it flared up again as she seemed to rally herself.

" _Hey! Since... since we're still... We need to do something about it! You're a Hero! I'll help you!_ " She took to the air, fluttering around his head erratically. In spite of how desolate her future seemed, she appeared to be determined to make the best of it and it made Naruto smile. He knew that determination.

With uncharacteristic silence he pulled his shield and sword down from his back and turned toward his teammates, only to find the two reckless Genin gone and in their place the snout of a gigantic snake.

The fairy shrieked in alarm.

Now that he was paying attention he realized that the song in the distance had drawn away and he almost groaned even as he dodged to the side, the snake glanced of the shield as it lunged past him, making his arm go numb as the sheer weight of the creature inflicted damage.

 _"This isn't from the forest!"_ The fairy shouted as to darted into the snake's eyes, making it twist around, it's head in the air as it tried to follow the glittering ball of light. Using her as a targeting marker Naruto pulled out a couple of shuriken, aiming for it's eyes and grabbing the snakes attention before he had the bright idea to use a Deku Nut.

Deku nuts had been everywhere in the Kokiri Woods and they were some of the most useful items he's found so far. The unripened nuts were like iron. They hurt if they were hurled at you with enough force. Facing countless Deku Scrubs had taught him that much around their use as a weapon. He'd found a small and sturdy slingshot in the tree house along with the outfit he currently wore and had brought it along, but what he really liked was the ripe versions. A ripened deku nut did... something. Whether it was a chemical reaction or a tiny burst of magic, it lit up like the sun when broken and had the added benefit of temporarily paralyzing forest creatures.

It was this ability that Naruto used to stop the snake in its tracks. A faint sheen of blue light trapped the snake in a moment and he didn't hesitate, throwing himself forward he rushed the oversized beast and lashed out, sword digging into the scales. The momentum of his strike bled away quickly though and he found himself hurled away once more as it thrashed, hissing loudly. Still, Naruto was nothing if not determined, and now that he knew it could work, he lunged forward. His fairy friend lighting up weak points he could hit or had already hit, the fight took longer than average, but he managed at last to cut it open, his blade sinking in deep enough to hit something vital.

The snake thrashed, twitching in its death throes, before blinking out of existence in a plume of smoke.

Naruto felt the elation of victory turn into a sinking stone in his guts.

He remembered that his teammates weren't there and his blood all but froze in his veins. It was a distraction. He'd been caught up with the snake so long they'd gotten away from him and if he was under attack then it was a sure thing that his teammates were probably in worse danger.

"Damnit!" He yelled. The fairy nearly dropped out of the air, her shouts of celebration cut off abruptly at his cry.

 _"What was that?!"_ The fairy demanded. Naruto held out a hand, gesturing her back into the safety of his hat.

"This was a distraction!" He exclaimed... albeit, with less volume this time as he took off running. "The snake was strange, it might have been called by one of the other ninja in the exam. We need to find my teammates!"

The clearing where he'd left them was empty and silent, the song of the forest had long stopped playing and he knew for certain that something had happened. He looked around and his fairy spotted the tracks almost at the same time he did. They charged off into the underbrush, dodging the forest creatures that had crept out of the mist along the trail left there and burst into another clearing that definitely hadn't been there before in time to see a strange adult ninja dressed like the kusa ninja who's clone he'd accidentally killed earlier, going to attack Sasuke above him.

Naruto didn't even stop to think. He looked around, catching sight of vines attached to a nearby tree and threw himself at them, clambering up as fast as he could. When he reached a thick limb just above the height of the ongoing battle he drew his sword, only to see the enemy nin's neck stretching more than had ever been physically possible and bit his teammate on the shoulder.

Seeing red he charged, running along the branch and leaping into thin air, bring his sword to bear and slashing right through the extended neck. Sasuke yelled and passed out, the enemy nin dissolved into mud once more and before he could even think about the drop he was about to make to the forest floor the wind was knocked out of him.

The enemy nin. The real one this time, glared down at him with narrowed eyes, lit with something unholy in their depths he hissed at the Green clad Genin in his grasp.

"You!" poisonous yellow took in his whisker marks. "No wonder you're a pain in my side. The jinchūriki. It's a shame I'm not here for you today, but I'll have to make sure you can't work against me." His fingertips lit up with chakra and plunged into his stomach. Naruto grunted and cried out as he was thrown back to the branch he'd launched himself from and impacted with the trunk, but the last thing he heard as his vision started to go dark, was the fairy screaming out for him and before the world could go black, a tiny, rust colored figure with a skull like mask crouched down before his face.

 _ **"Oh... what do we have here?"**_

* * *

A/N: So. chapter 2.

I'm surprised I'm getting as far into this as I am honestly. It's been a long time since I've even touched anything Naruto related. It's a good thing I mostly had this mapped out before I lost interest. My reading material of choice is currently Attack on Titan. XD

So yeah. I'm getting my groove back.

P.s: Also, just in case I'll put a not here. I'm uploading my stories slowly to Ao3 at well as this site. Simply because I felt like backing them up somewhere. It'll be a really slow process cause I'm not going to do it all at once but they're under a new username. Auraion. It's a name I use in quite a lot of media and gaming platforms and I've kinda wanted to make the change for a while now to include my FF. net account in that. This account though will remain as Mage-Alia and my primary updates with occur here. So don't worry. I'm not going anywhere... I'm just making a backup. That said, toodles!

Don't forget to review!

Cya


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